DLLR News

Senior Loan Office with Metropolitan Money Store Sentenced to Over 3 Years in Prison for Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Eleventh and Final Defendant Sentenced in the Metropolitan Money Store Case

Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Rolando Alonzo Cousins, a/k/a
“Junior,” age 32, of Bowie, Maryland, today to 38 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised
release, for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in connection with a massive mortgage fraud
scheme which promised to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes and repair their damaged
credit, but left them homeless and with no equity. Judge Titus also ordered that Cousins pay restitution of
$471,702.25. With Cousins’ sentencing all 11 defendants in the Metropolitan Money Store case have now been
convicted and sentenced.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein;
Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Special Agent in Charge
Jeffrey Irvine of the U.S. Secret Service - Washington Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Barbara Golden
of the U.S. Secret Service - Baltimore Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Sparkman of the
Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation; and Sarah Bloom Raskin, Commissioner of the
Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation’s Division of Financial Regulation.

Cousins admitted that from September 2004 through June 2007, he, Jackson, McCall and others, operating
through several companies, including the Metropolitan Money Store, fraudulently promised to help homeowners
avoid foreclosure, keep their homes and repair their damaged credit, by directing the homeowners to allow
title to their homes to be put in the names of third party purchasers (the straw buyers) for a one year
period, during which time the defendants would help the homeowners obtain more favorable mortgages, improve
their credit rating and eventually return title to their homes to them. Cousins, Jackson, McCall and others
told the homeowners that the equity withdrawn from the properties would be used to pay the mortgage and
expenses on their homes and to repair their credit.

Cousins and other Metropolitan Money Store employees were paid approximately $10,000 to personally serve
as straw buyers on several properties in Maryland, because they had good credit history. As part of the
scheme, Cousins and his co-conspirators fraudulently bolstered the credit of the straw buyers so they could
qualify for more favorable mortgages; obtained fraudulently inflated loans on the properties in the straw
buyers names; served as straw buyers themselves; stripped away the bulk of the homeowners equity proceeds
and converted that money to their own personal use; and stopped making the mortgage payments on the homes,
resulting in the homes being foreclosed upon.

The total loss attributable to Cousins from the scheme, including the estimated losses to the mortgage
lenders, is $471,702.

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein expressed special appreciation to the Maryland Department of Labor,
Licensing and Regulation’s Division of Financial Regulation Investigative Unit for its assistance in the
investigation.

Joy Jackson and Jennifer McCall pleaded guilty to their role in the scheme and were sentenced to 151
months in prison and 135 months in prison, respectively. Nine other co-conspirators also have pleaded guilty
and been sentenced.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and the Internal Revenue
Service – Criminal Investigation for their work in this investigation and commended Assistant United States
Attorneys James A. Crowell IV and Christen Sproule, who prosecuted the case.